BLACKSTONE ROVERS NOV 2000

BLACKSTONE ROVERS-THE STORY SO FAR




Blackstone Rovers were formed in August 1999 and represents the areas of Parklands, Onslow Gardens, Fairhill, Larchfield and other surrounding areas in the Northside of the city. The players are all close friends outside club activties and this adds to the excitement that each game brings. The club was lucky enough to secure the services of a strong and experienced management team from the very beginning. The recruitment of fitness specialist Pat Goulding and Tony Bevan, who has over 30 years experience in AUL football, has greatly helped the development of the club in its infancy.



This season the club has moved to a new ground at Monard and the easy accesibility of the pitch has insured that crowds at home games often top the 50 mark. The quality of the ground and the changing facilities, as well as the loyal following, has shown in the results this season.



The team currently lies at the top of Division 3B having only lost one game this season and have strong title and promotion ambitions. "Our first season was a season of settlement in the league but the results in the last seven games of last season gave us optimism for the new campaign and this has been proved right in the early part of this campaign," said Tony Bevan, joint manager of the team, " We are a young side with a strong team spirit and I predict big things for this team."



The squad is led by captain Wayne Lee, who also managed to secure the Player of the Year accolade last season. He is joined by his brother Glenn, making up one of five sets of brothers on the team. The others are the Bevans, Ivan and Colin, the O' Callaghans, Eric and Jason, the McCarthys, Kenneth and George and the Sheehans, Bernard and Ian. New signings Francis Cooney, Colm Murphy, David Goggin, Philip O Sullivan and Tony Leahy have fitted in well with the old hands of last year, Trevor Hartnett, Alan Coleman, Andrew O Brien, Karl McDonald, keeper Noel Quinn and star striker Colin O Leary. O' Leary has continued this season in the rich vein of scoring form that helped Blackstone out of many tough situations last season and has been helped by the newly found scoring talents of Andrew O Brien, Francis Cooney and Tony Leahy. Both O Leary (twice) and Leahy were on target in the recent strong victory aginst the always tough Hill Celtic,O Brien scored twice to help Rovers to come from two down to beat the ever improving Dillons Cross and Cooney has already hit the target 4 times this term. The squad will be boosted even further with the return of long term injury victims, Colum Kelleher, Bjorn Mc Donald and Shane Gardner.















BLACKSTONE ROVERS-THE STORY SO FAR



The success on the field is mirrored by the growth of Blackstone as a club off the field. The hard working committee led by Chairman Ivan Bevan is made up of 6 players who work tirelessly behind the scenes. Vice Chairman Colum Kelleher is joined by Hon. Secretary Wayne Lee, Treasurer Eric O Callaghan, Trevor Hartnett and Jason O Callaghan. They have worked really hard over the last two years to ensure the club is known and respected in Cork football circles. They have secured training facilities for the team in Mayfield Community Centre for the winter months but, sometimes, manager Pat Goulding treats the players to a gruelling road running session which everyone seems to enjoy(not)!!!!!!!



The committee see the future of the club in the youth of the area. Blackstone hope to set plans in motion this season for the formation of schoolboys teams in the near future and hope to utilise the known youth talent in the area. " We hope to create a youth set-up similar to those at Rockmount or Leeds," says Hon. Secretary Wayne Lee, "and we know the talent is there to do this."



As for this season, Rovers have one aim and one aim only; to win the league. "Promotion would be nice but we aim to up as champions," says Vice Chairman Colum Kelleher, " and after our good start there is no reason why we cannot do this."



The board and players realise now how difficult it is to run an AUL club and are thankful to all their sponsers for their help over the last 16 months. Without the likes of Waxy's, The Brewery Tap, Top Tile and JC Sportsworld the club would not have been able to survive and will be eternally grateful.

Blackstone would also like to thank Bohemians, Churchview and Blarney United for their help as well as all the other AUL sides who have assisted them. Most importantly, Rovers would like to thank their supporters who turn up to every game and hope to be able to reward them with some silverware this year.